Gerry Adams
Ceist:88 Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the date on which he will publish a new immigration bill. [22686/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 8 May 2012
Ceisteanna (39)
Freagraí scríofa
Work on the details of the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010, which has been restored by the Government to the Dáil Order Paper, has been ongoing at my Department. This has been necessary to take account of current Government policy which is committed, under the Programme for National Recovery, to "introduce comprehensive reforms of the immigration, residency and asylum systems, which will include a statutory appeals system and set out rights and obligations in a transparent way". In the course of that work it has become clear that as well as a number of amendments to address some outstanding policy matters a large number of technical amendments to the Bill will be necessary. As I outlined to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence on 7th March during our discussion of migration-related EU funding programmes, it is already anticipated that there would be several hundred such amendments to be dealt with and we have been considering how best to progress them including in co-operation with the Offices of Parliamentary Counsel and of the Attorney General.
At the Joint Committee I also expressed the considered view that instead of engaging in an extremely cumbersome process of tabling hundreds of amendments to the 2010 Bill it would be much more efficient to publish a new and enhanced one. This would incorporate the anticipated amendments and address key outstanding issues several of which have been of previous concern to Members. This proposition was broadly welcomed by the Joint Committee and I very much appreciate the constructive and business-like stance they have thus taken notwithstanding the protracted history of this piece of legislation. It remains my objective under this new approach and mindful of the competing legislative demands of our EU/IMF/ECB Programme commitments, to be in a position to bring the new Bill to Government for approval and publication later this year.